Water-ski club rides the waves
May 22, 2006
It was just another day at the beach for spectators, but not for ISU Water-ski Club members.
Six ISU club members – and water skiers from colleges from all over the nation – competed against the best of the best Saturday and Sunday in the 2006 National Collegiate Water Skiing Association Collegiate All-Stars Tournament, hosted by the ISU Water-ski Club and Dream Lake Estates in Huxley. Club members that didn’t compete volunteered their time at the tournament.
EVENTS
Slalom: The slalom event is performed on one ski by an athlete attempting to negotiate around the outside of six buoys in a zigzag course without falling or missing a buoy in consecutive passes. An athlete receives one point for each buoy successfully rounded. The athlete that skis around the most buoys scoring the most points will win the event. Each athlete begins with a 75-foot slalom rope at the minimum boat speed for his or her age/gender division. Once an athlete has run enough passes to reach maximum boat speed for his or her division, the rope is shortened in pre-measured lengths until a buoy is missed or the athlete falls.
Tricks: The tricks event has been described as the most technical of the three events. Beginners perform this event on two short skis, and intermediate to elite athletes perform on one short ski. An athlete attempts to perform as many tricks as he or she can during one 20-second pass. Each trick has an assigned point value and an athlete may perform each trick only once. The athlete who earns the most points wins the event. Tricks are performed either with an athlete’s foot slipped into a strap attached to the handle, called toehold tricks, or with the handle held in the athlete’s hands.
Jump: The object of the jumping event is for an athlete to jump as far as he or she can. There are no style points. Each athlete has three attempts to jump as far as he or she can. In each division, there is a set boat speed and the ramp height is set at five feet in collegiate water skiing. However, elite women jump at a ramp height of five-and-a-half feet and elite men jump at six feet. Although most distances for the average male and female range between 80 and 170 feet, the men’s world record is 236 feet.
– Compiled from 2006 NCWSA Collegiate All-stars Tournament program
The tournament, which took place at Dream Lake Estates in Huxley, showcased some of the best water-skiing talent across the nation. The 10 best skiers in each region were invited to compete in the all-stars tournament against other skiers from other regions in one or more of three events – slalom skiing, trick skiing and ski long jump.
ISU participants invited to compete in the all-star tournament included Joe Weiser in the slalom, ski long jump and trick competitions, Adam Howard in the slalom, Jay Weiser, senior in elementary education, in the trick competition, Bob Shuman in the slalom and trick competitions, and Christian Noon, graduation student in mechanical engineering, and Brian Ansel, senior in architecture, in the ski long jump.
But the club members didn’t just slide into a pair of skis and glide across the water or through the air on a whim. Many of the ISU skiers have been in the water and on skis since they were children.
“I learned to ski when I was 6 [years old] – 16 years ago – and have been skiing competitively for the past 6 years,” said Howard, senior in civil engineering and club president.
Abbey Lamm, sophomore in pre-business and club vice president, has also been water skiing since she was young, but is new to the competitive level of collegiate water skiing.
“I’ve always loved water skiing and I’ve been doing it since I was in about third grade,” Lamm said. “This year at Iowa State was my first year ever doing competition skiing, and before that I hardly knew there was such a thing.”
Although the club may be ambiguous to the ISU campus and members have just recently began water skiing at a competitive level, it has been successful against other collegiate ski teams across the nation.
“I came to Iowa State because of the water-skiing club. Our men’s team is really good. We have gone to nationals the past two years,” said Howard, who placed eighth in the slalom at the all-stars tournament.
Howard said the club finished in eighth place at nationals in 2005 and placed 10th in 2004’s national tournament.
But the competition is only one reason students join the Water-ski club.
“By joining the water-ski team, I can ski almost whenever I want to,” Lamm said.
“The people I’ve met through the club are amazing and we have so much fun together. There are a lot of great skiers and they’ve taught me a lot about skiing.”
Many club members try to stay involved in at least some form of skiing all year round, whether it is snow skiing or teaching younger water-skiers at camps. Howard said the club members pass down knowledge and tips to young children all over the United States, including North Carolina, Florida and Texas.
“Last year, six of us went to water skiing exclusive camps and taught,” Howard said. “This year, Abbey Lamm is going to Maine to teach water skiing at a camp.”
Although the spring season is over and some club members are working and teaching this summer, the club already has high goals set for next year’s water-skiing season.
“We want to make it to nationals again. There are some people coming back, but this year, we lost some good skiers,” Howard said.
“We would like a good women’s recruitment for next year, as well.”
